This July 24, 2003 photo shows former priest Stephen Kiesle during a hearing in Martinez, Calif. A letter obtained by the Associated Press and bearing the signature of future Pope Benedict XVI shows then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger resisted defrocking Kiesle, who had a record of sexually molesting children, after his case had languished for four years at the Vatican. The 1985 letter was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of Rev. Kiesle. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, Susan Tripp Pollard) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES, MAGS OUT less

This July 24, 2003 photo shows former priest Stephen Kiesle during a hearing in Martinez, Calif. A letter obtained by the Associated Press and bearing the signature of future Pope Benedict XVI shows ... more

Photo: Susan Tripp Pollard, Associated Press 2003

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John S. Cummins, former bishop of the diocese of Oakland, Calif., recalls correspondence from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger regarding troubled priest Stephen Kiesle as he looks over copies of a document brought by the Associated Press to his home in Oakland,Calif. on Friday, April 9, 2010. A letter obtained by the AP and bearing the signature of future Pope Benedict XVI shows then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger resisted defrocking Kiesle, who had a record of sexually molesting children, after his case had languished for four years at the Vatican. The 1985 letter was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of Rev. Kiesle. Cummins, 82 and now retired, initially told the AP less

John S. Cummins, former bishop of the diocese of Oakland, Calif., recalls correspondence from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger regarding troubled priest Stephen Kiesle as he looks over copies of a document brought by ... more

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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This Friday, April 9, 2010 photo shows a detail of a 1985 letter obtained by the Associated Press signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then-head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, part of years of correspondence between theVatican and the Oakland, Calif. diocese. The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted defrocking California priest Rev. Stephen Kiesle, who had a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to the letter. less

This Friday, April 9, 2010 photo shows a detail of a 1985 letter obtained by the Associated Press signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then-head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ... more

Photo: Kim Johnson, Associated Press

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Future pope slow to act on defrocking priest

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When he was in charge of the office of church discipline, the future Pope Benedict XVI was slow to respond to a request to be defrocked by an East Bay priest who had pleaded no contest to lewd conduct charges.

In 1985, four years after the Vatican learned of Stephen Kiesle's request to leave the priesthood, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins asking for more time to consider the matter.

Kiesle, who had served in several East Bay parishes, pleaded no contest in 1978 to lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys at Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Union City, where he was a teacher and priest.

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Ratzinger's letter surfaced as a growing chorus of critics say the future pontiff did not act aggressively enough to discipline priests involved in sex abuse cases in Europe and the United States when he headed the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog office.

Victims groups now say that further undermines the church's claims that the pontiff was not involved in blocking the removal of pedophile clergy.

In 1981, after serving three years of probation for the lewd conduct charges, Kiesle requested that he be laicized - removed from the priesthood. The Diocese of Oakland supported his request to the Vatican, which must approve defrocking.

That was also the year that Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican department responsible for disciplining priests.

Cummins warned the Vatican that it would be a bigger scandal to allow Kiesle to remain in the priesthood than to defrock him. But there was no resolution for years, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press, despite several attempts by the diocese to follow up on the case.

4 years for response

Meanwhile, in 1985 Kiesle began volunteering - without the blessing of the diocese - as a youth minister at St. Joseph's Church in Pinole, according to news reports.

It took four years for Ratzinger to respond in writing to Cummins. In 1985, Ratzinger wrote that he considered "this case to be of grave significance," but worried about the reaction.

In a letter written in Latin, he asked Cummins "to consider the good of the Universal Church together with that of the petitioner," according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.

"It is necessary for this Congregation to submit incidents of this sort to very careful consideration, which necessitates a longer period of time," Ratzinger wrote.

Noting Kiesle's "young age," 38 at the time, Ratzinger instead encouraged Cummins to provide Kiesle "with as much paternal care as possible." A Vatican lawyer told the Associated Press that paternal care was a way of telling the bishop he was responsible for keeping Kiesle out of trouble.

It wasn't until 1987 that Kiesle was defrocked. But that wasn't the end of his story.

6-year sentence

In 2002, Kiesle was accused of molesting five children up to 30 years earlier when he was a priest at Santa Paula Church in Fremont.

It became a high-profile case regionally, as investigators dug up the yard of his vacation home in Truckee, looking for clues linking him to four missing Northern California children. Kiesle had lived near Amber Swartz of Pinole when she vanished in 1988. No evidence was founded linking Kiesle to any of the cases.

Charges against him were dismissed in June 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated provisions of a 1994 California law that had extended the statute of limitations for child molestation.

But in 2004, Kiesle plead no contest to molesting a young girl at his Truckee home in 1995. He was sentenced to six years in prison. Kiesle, now 63, lives in a gated community in Walnut Creek, according to the state directory of registered sex offenders.

His former attorney, William Gagen, did not respond to a request to be interviewed Friday.

Victims advocates were outraged Friday at seeing the future pope's signature on the letter. They demanded the Vatican disclose all of the clergy sex crimes cases that the future pontiff handled.

"If this is how they react to a priest who has a record of molestation, think of how they react to others," said Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"This case is bad," said Casteix, who lives in Newport Beach (Orange County).

Diocese to look at case

A spokesman for the Diocese of Oakland said local church officials will review Kiesle's case over the weekend. Cummins has since retired and could not be reached.

"The diocese can't operate on its own" in defrocking a priest, Mike Brown, a spokesman for the diocese, said Friday. "It's part of a collaborative process."

But Casteix said diocese officials could have done more in the pre-Internet era, when registries of sex offenders were not readily available.

"They could have gotten on the phone and called every church, or put photos in every church and said watch out for this person," Casteix said. "Inaction is just as culpable as anything else."